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The Actor's Success
the online eZine for Actors
who want thriving careers
from Robin Jones

Volume II, issue 4
April 2005

"Our attitudes control our lives. Attitudes are a secret
power working twenty-four hours a day, for good or bad. It
is of paramount importance that we know how to harness and
control this great force. " --Irving Berlin

I hesitated in choosing Attitude as a topic for this
article, as it has adorned enough corporate offices to turn
it into a cheap cliche, but the importance of examining our
attitudes is so great that I went ahead with it anyway.

Webster's defines Attitude as:
1. a mental position with regard to a fact or state
2. a feeling or emotion toward a fact or state

So why is it important to "harness and control this great
force?"

Because our attitudes drive our behaviors and and our
behaviors drive the results we get. Change your attitude and
you change the results you get.

It's a simple formula, but we can prove it. Here's an
example:

I met Jesse Hooker last year, an apprentice at Actors
Theatre of Louisville. Jesse caught a break when the lead
actor in a new play was called back to New York for a prior
commitment, and he was asked to fill in. He was dynamite -
he knew exactly who the character was, and not only played
him with conviction, he had the audience in the palm of his
hand and played them like a pro.

After the show, I asked him what his plans were, and he said
he was going to work for UPS Shipping for a year to pay off
debt and then go off to pursue the dream. I urged him to go
to New York right away. Not only did he have the acting
chops, more importantly, he had momentum - a powerful
experience to use as a springboard. He resisted, and we
chatted (read: argued) for awhile, but he seemed committed
to staying.

I saw Jesse a couple of months later, when his
apprenticeship was up and he made a point of telling me he
had changed his mind and decided to go to New York. He was
nervous, but determined to make it work.

Since then, Jesse has had consistent professional acting
work, and is now back in Louisville--not at UPS, but as a
member of the acting company for Actors Theatre's Humana
Festival of New American Plays. I suspect he's well on his
way to a great career, doing what he loves.

And the play he starred in last year? After Ashley, which is
now playing off-Broadway at the Vineyard Theatre, starring
Kieran Culkin and Anna Paquin. Having the credit of
originating that role surely won't hurt his career.

I wonder how Jesse's life would have been different had he
hung on to the attitude that he needed to spend a year
throwing parcels onto a conveyor belt.

Get how Jesse's story fits the formula?
Attitude: I'm not ready. Behavior: work for UPS. Result: no
acting work.
Attitude: I'm nervous yet determined. Behavior: go to NY.
Result: acting work.

I'm not naive enough to think that a positive attitude
guarantees success, but I do know that a negative attitude
guarantees failure. Plus it's not as much fun.

The tricky thing about attitudes is that they operate in the
background; as Irving Berlin says, "a secret power working
twenty-four hours a day." Still, they retain a tremendous
amount of force over our behavior. In your own experience,
don't you go through much of your day, unaware of your
attitude, rather focused on the facts of the day?

That wouldn't be such a bad thing, except that we tend to
think that the attitude we hold about something is "true." I
suspect Jesse's attitude of "I'm not ready to go and make it
in New York" felt like the truth to him. Clearly, he's
ready.

It's important not to see attitudes as true/false,
right/wrong, or even good/bad, but rather as helpful or not,
or (dare I say it?) empowering or disempowering. They either
spur you on to actions that bring you what you want, or they
don't.

So how do we change attitudes that limit us or keep us
stuck?

First, bring your awareness to the attitude you hold on a
particular situation in your life. Name it.

Second, separate it from the facts. In case you have trouble
with this, "I didn't get cast," is a fact. "I suck and I'll
never make it," is an attitude.

Third, simply choose the attitude you want to have. Ask
yourself, "What will make this situation better?" It doesn't
mean you automatically will have it, but there's emormous
power in placing your intention there.

One thing I do is change my physical environment,
automatically changing my mindset. As Einstein said,
"Problems cannot be solved by the same level of thinking
that created them." I often take a walk, get something to
eat, play a game for a few minutes, or put on some music.
Nina Simone singing "Feeling Good," never fails:

Birds flying high, you know how I feel,
Sun in the sky, you know how I feel,
Breeze, drifting on by, you know how I feel,
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me,
It's a new dawn, it's a new day, it's a new life for me,
and I'm feeling good...

Until next month, my friends, I wish you much love and
success.

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